Obama warns Iran is not open for business yet

Feb. 11, 2014
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President Obama holds a bilateral meeting with his French counterpart Francois Hollande in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2014. Hollande's three-day state visit to the US, which is designed to underscore historic ties and a burgeoning security relationship between America and its oldest ally, takes place as he tries to shrug off embarrassment over his love life. / JEWEL SAMAD AFP/Getty Images

by Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY

by Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - President Obama vowed on Tuesday to come down like "a ton of bricks" on firms that violate sanctions against Iran, a blunt warning delivered after a group of more than 100 French executives traveled to Iran last week to explore business opportunities.

The president's direct message, which came during a joint news conference with French President Francois Hollande, follows Republican and some Democratic lawmakers raising concerns that international firms are already trying to position themselves in case the Iran market opens up.

Last month, six world powers - including the USA and France - implemented an interim agreement in which they eased some sanctions against Tehran, while the Iranian regime agreed to cease certain nuclear activity.

The temporary deal has been met by a great measure of skepticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. The P5+1 powers are set to sit down with Iran next week to begin work on what could become a permanent deal.

But Obama - following previous direct warnings from Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew - attempted to make clear that most sanctions remain in place and that Iran is far from being open to business.

"Businesses may be exploring ... some possibilities to get in sooner rather than later if and when there is an actual agreement to be had," Obama said. "But I can tell you that they do so at their own peril right now because we will come down on them like a ton of bricks with respect to the sanctions that we control, and we expect full compliance with respect to the P5-plus-1 during this interim."

Hollande, who was making the first state visit to Washington by a French leader in nearly 20 years, said the companies made their own travel decisions. Last week, Kerry told his French counterpart that their business executives' travel to Iran was "not helpful."

"The president of the republic is not the president of the employers union in France, and he certainly doesn't wish to be," Hollande said. "Companies make their decisions when it comes to traveling. But I certainly let them know that sanctions were in force and would remain in force."

Obama also acknowledged on Tuesday his "enormous frustration" with efforts to end the 3-year-old civil war in Syria.

"We still have a horrendous situation on the ground in Syria," Obama said.

Obama's comments came as Syrian negotiators on Tuesday held their first face-to-face meeting this month and U.S. and Russian officials prepared to join the stalemated peace talks in Geneva.

The meeting broke up after three hours, and both sides said the session failed to produce an agreement even on the agenda, according to the Associated Press.

United Nations-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters afterward that the start of meetings this week was "as laborious" as the first session two weeks ago, but the Syrian people need faster progress from the talks.

Obama reiterated he doesn't see a military solution in Syria and continues to support a negotiated end to the conflict through the ongoing Geneva talks.

"Right now we don't think there is a military solution to the problem."

The visit by Hollande marked the first state visit that Obama has hosted in nearly two years. State visits are a time-honored tradition of recognizing

The White House had invited Brazil's Dilma Rousseff to be honored late last year, but she canceled the visit after revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the U.S. intelligence agency had spied on foreign leaders.

Hollande said that he and Obama touched on the spying issue and "mutual trust has been restored."

Obama also announced he would travel to France in June to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day. He attended the 65th anniversary in Normandy, just months after he took office.

On the domestic front, Obama said he decided to give mid-size employers additional time to comply with his signature health care law because the goal is not to punish anyone. The White House announced

"For many of these companies, just the process of complying ... it may take them some time even if they are operating in good faith," Obama said. "The purpose of the law is not to punish them, it's to simply make sure that they are either providing health insurance to their employees or they are helping to bear the cost of their employees getting health insurance."